Saturday, August 22, 2015
1 Corinthians 13:11ff When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
GOD'S LOVE COMPLETES US
One could say that a child is an incomplete person. A child doesn't know everything that he needs to know to function in this world. Listen to a babbling baby and you'll realize that a person can't go through his entire life like that. But as a child grows he acquires more and more of the skills and the knowledge needed to function in society.
So it is also for the believer. Unless I know Christ's love and what it led Him to do, and the result of that work of love, I am incomplete, ill-equipped to function in Christ's kingdom.
Why would I be kind to others? Why would I show love to my enemy? Why would I forgive anyone unless I understood God has forgiven me all of my sins? It is Christ's love for us that leads us to use our gifts to proclaim God's Word, to declare the mysteries of God and to share the knowledge of His Word. It is His love that leads us to faith and to share our goods with the poor, or to sacrifice even our very lives that others might know Christ's love. It is His love that leads us to be patient with one another, to be kind to one another and so on. It is Christ's love that leads us to use our gifts to the glory of God and in Christian love for one another, as we are told, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
Sin separates man from God. In undeserved love Christ removed our sin with His sacrifice of love. He has restored sinful man to a perfect relationship with God, so that He says, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father ..." (John 14:9). In Christ we have a perfect relationship with God, so that even though "now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." In heaven we will see God face to face. We are assured of this, for even now we see Him in Christ Jesus.
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." The greatest of all gifts is love, for it is Christ's love that brings to us the love and faith that trusts in Him as our Savior from sin. It is this faith that gives to us the hope "which is laid up for [us] in heaven" (Colossians 1:5). So we see that love has everything to do with our Christian faith, for without the love of God we would not know love and everything we do would be pointless.
"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work" (2 Thessalonians 2:16f).
